The Hammers offered $10million for the England international, who turned down the chance to extend his current Royals deal at the start of the season and earn himself a pay rise in the process.

The 26-year-old, who has two years left on his current contract, is understood to be keen to move to Upton Park but Coppell made it clear he would never part with a player for anything less than a "fair" price.

He said: "I can't deny there was a written offer made. Given the price of players today we thought it was nigh on a derisory offer and we turned it down immediately. We have had no contact since.

"People may look at us as being a soft touch but we are not going to give players away.

"Just because we are not a big club and are not aggressive in the transfer market doesn't mean we are such a soft touch that if you put in a stupid offer we would take it.

"We are a business and our chairman is a businessman. We are not going to give away players we have invested many years of time and commitment to for a derisory sum.

"We don't want to be seen as a club where you are allowed to leave for what is not a fair price."

Ironically West Ham are the visitors to the Madejski Stadium on Saturday with the game kicking off 15 hours after the transfer window closes until January.

Coppell could offer the fans no cast iron guarantee that should West Ham come back with a better offer the player would still not be sold.

He said: "I can't say that. I can't say that about any of the players because the transfer deadline is a strange thing. But I would prefer ourselves to be predators rather than prey at this stage.

"And I do think it is just a coincidence of the fixtures. People have interpreted Shorey's desire not to negotiate a new deal in many ways. Some people think he is available for transfer but he is not.

"They faxed us an offer and we very firmly but politely declined that offer. As far as I am aware there has been no contact between the two clubs since so it's closed as far as I am concerned.

"We didn't immediately tell him because although I am always honest with players we didn't think it was a serious offer and $10million is a lot of money but it was a flier. It was as though they were thinking "they are going to turn it down but you never know, they might be stupid to take it".

"It is nice to be wanted. He is wanted here and I'm sure is coveted elsewhere but he is our player."

Shorey missed last week's 3-0 defeat at Bolton with a knee injury picked up on England duty the week before. However he is expected to be fit for Saturday's clash and will start for Reading unless events off the field dictate otherwise.

Defender Sam Sodje, who was sent off in the 1-0 Carling Cup win at Swansea in midweek, has agreed to go on loan to Charlton for the rest of the season.